


of secret romantics and unrequited love

by peppersnot



Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Rin being a crybaby, and Haru has a secret romantic side, don't worry this is wholly two sided rinharu, no unrequited love on their part
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-12
Updated: 2013-12-12
Packaged: 2018-01-04 11:09:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1080317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peppersnot/pseuds/peppersnot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haru may or may not have a secret romantic side (but it’s all Rin’s fault, really).</p>
            </blockquote>





	of secret romantics and unrequited love

**Author's Note:**

> Someone once gave me a prompt on Rin being a crybaby, so this happened, even if it happened after like, months of receiving that prompt. At least I wrote it? Crybaby Rin is adorable.
> 
> I think they're super ooc (especially Haru and oh my god, I'm so sorry, because I really love Haru and I tried doing justice to his character but I clearly failed orz)

“You’re crying,”

“ _I am not!”_

Even as he says – yells, can’t he be a little softer? What the hell, Haru thinks – this, Rin turns a bright pink and hastens to wipe the tears that are slowly welling up in his eyes.

It’s so hilarious, Haru feels like laughing out loud.

(But he’s Haru and he doesn’t laugh, because that is against the Haru Code of Conduct, so he resists the urge.)

“It’s just a movie, Rin,” He says, a smirk playing across his lips. Rin throws the pillow he’s been clutching so tightly at him and Haru dodges.

Really, it’s a very common thing now, watching Rin cry. Haru can  _always_ tell when the tears are coming, and he can always identify how long the tears have been coming, if he wasn’t there to see them start. For example, right now, he was making dinner, while Rin was hear watching his sappy, romance movies again. He’s crying, but it can’t have been more than two or three minutes since then, because his eyes aren’t red enough, the tear stains aren’t visible enough, and there is only one used tissue lying next to him, the second one in his hand (which he is trying to hide by crumpling it up in his fist, but Haru can still see it).

“Rin.”

“ _I’m not crying!”_

“Dinner is ready, Rin.”

“Oh.” Rin nods. “I’m coming.”

Haru leaves, goes back to the kitchen and starts setting the table. He counts down to ten, and the sniffling starts again. The urge to laugh is overwhelming but he buries it deep inside, and smiles instead, biting his tongue to stop himself from giving in to the hilarity of the whole thing.

Rin is a crybaby, yes. Rin will cry over everything. Manly tears, he calls them, but Haru knows otherwise. There is nothing remotely manly about watching Sayaka-chan’s tale of unrequited love. How cliché. Haru scoffs.

_‘I just hated him so much at the time. Who gave him the right to barge into my life like that? How dare he? How dare he make me feel things?’_

The voices float into the kitchen and Haru scowls. He can deal with Rin crying, he can deal with having to listen to him rant – after he gets over his  _I’m-not-crying­_ phase, of course – about how they should be allowed to be together, and why does he have to wait an entire week for the next episode already, but having to actually listen to the sappy I-love-yous and in this case how-dare-he-make-me-feel-things is too much. At least Rin doesn’t make him watch it.

(Although, to be completely honest, Haru thinks he’s being a hypocrite, because he can somewhat relate to this drama. He distinctly remembers watching a young Rin disappear through glass doors at the airport, and his heart throbbing in his chest, his mind repeating  _who gave you the right to make me feel something?_ )

(And then, years later, an older Rin telling him he’d never swim with Haru again, and then for almost two days, all he did was sit in his bathtub and think of  _Rin Rin Rin who the fuck said you could come and go from my life whenever you feel like it?)_

(And of course, a few weeks after that, Rin hugging him after the race, sobbing onto his shoulder, and Haru’s heart, almost about to burst - )

The episode’s ending song starts and Haru sighs, shakes his head because he doesn’t want to think of moments like those, because he’s happy now, he’s so so happy – except when Rin starts with his stupid dramas again. He thanks the gods he only deals with this once a week.

(Haru curses the fact that it’s entirely his fault. Well, not really, but kind of. He fell asleep in front of the TV, while waiting for Rin to get home, and woke up to him staring intently at the screen, and some commercial for an upcoming drama series. Who the fuck would want to watch that, he’d thought, but Rin clearly disagreed.)

The TV is turned off and a sniffling, red nosed, red eyed Rin enters.

“You were crying,” Is what Haru says and Rin glowers.

“Oh yeah, well so what.”

“Nothing. But you were crying.”

“ _And your point is?”_

“You were crying.”

“Shut up, Haru,” Rin says and sits down. He makes a face at the plate. “Mackerel, again?”

“It’s good for you, but no. That’s mine,” Haru says and sets a plate of chicken steak in front of him. “This is yours.”

They eat in silence, with Rin’s sniffling almost like background music. It’s like a constant in the house now. For Thursdays, at least. A Thursday in this house isn’t normal until Rin can be heard sniffling. He keeps opening his mouth, as if to say something, but chooses not to, and passes it off as a yawn, or a sigh or just taking a bite of his food.

“Okay,” Haru says, thoroughly annoyed, and puts his fork down. “What did Yoshino do this time?”

“He told Sayaka he doesn’t want to see her again!” Is the instant reply and Haru almost laughs this time. Almost. He smiles though, and Rin screams in frustration. “You don’t understand! It’s a tragic story! She loves him and he loves her but they’re so far apart and she’s waited so long for him and she thinks its her fault that they’re like this but it’s not it’s just because he’s an asshole and fuck it, why doesn’t he just apologize and fucking kiss her already it’s so obvious he wants to – “

“Doesn’t it remind you of us?”

Rin stops mid-rant to stare at Haru. “What?”

“Doesn’t it? Painful as it is to admit it, I think I was pretty much in Sayaka’s role.” Haru frowns. “Except of course, I didn’t dwell so much on how in love with you I was.”

Rin stares at him for almost a whole minute before he laughs. He doesn’t even laugh, he  _guffaws_ , with his head on the table and his entire body convulsing with his laughs.

“Oh my god, Haru,” He gasps out, “Who knew  _you_  were such a romantic?”

“Who the hell said I am?”

“Aren’t you?”

“Unlike you, no.”

“You just admitted you love me!”

“I wouldn’t be dating you if I didn’t. Wouldn’t you agree?” Haru looks at him. “Or maybe you don’t love  _me_?”

“W-what?! That’s not it! Of course I do! I’ve loved you for almost my entire life!”

Haru snorts. “And then you had the gall to call  _me_  the romantic.”

“But really, how exactly is the story like ours?”

“Let’s see,” Haru says, “You left me for Australia and came back as a sore loser. Then I stopped swimming because I thought you being hurt was all my fault - ”

“I didn’t say it was your fault! That assumption was made by you!”

“Then you went again and came back as a jerk  _and_  a sore loser - ”

“ _What?!_ ”

“Then I swam with you and you won, but it was apparently all my fault that you won because I didn’t work out enough – why do you care about that, anyway, it’s my wish if I work out or not – ”

“Because if you weren’t still in good shape then winning was pointless!”

“And then you said you wouldn’t swim with me, when you won again – and that was so stupid of you, I hated you for two days – ”

“I said I was sorry!”

“And then you cried on my face – which was disgusting,  _you cried on my face, I am not a tissue –_ and then hugged me and everything was alright again.”

“Fuck you, Haru! I said sorry for all that shit, didn’t I?!”

“Yeah, but I’m not saying this to make my point, not to make you feel guilty or anything.”

Rin frowns. “Your point?”

Haru nods his head towards the living room. “The drama. It reminds me of us.”

“…wow.” Rin’s eyes widen. “It does…”

Haru smiles. He’s gotten Rin’s mind off the drama now, so he won’t have to deal with the tears and ranting at night when he’s trying to sleep.

“So since we have a happy ending, then Yoshino will finally come to his senses and be with Sayaka!”

Oh god. He sighs in exasperation and continues eating his mackerel, because really, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with this Sayaka and Yoshino crap.

“Haru.”

“What?”

“Did I…” Rin pauses, as if trying to find the right words. “Did I make you…feel things?”

“What things?”

“You know. Like Sayaka feels."

He did  _not_  just compare him to Sayaka.

“Did you think that way about me? ‘How dare he barge into my life’ and all?”

Haru is silent for a while, because if he is honest, and says yes, then that is openly admitting his hidden romantic side (even if it’s not as intense and feminine as Rin’s). If he says no, then that’s lying, and Haru doesn’t like lying, and besides, this is Rin, so maybe Rin should know –

“Yeah,” He says. “Sometimes.”

Rin’s expression is unreadable and for a second Haru thinks he’s going to start laughing, but instead, tears well up in the corners of Rin’s eyes and then suddenly, Rin’s chair is empty and Haru is being hugged – squeezed more like, he can’t even breathe – and Rin is sobbing on his shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, Haru! I never meant – I didn’t realize – I’m so sorry!”

Haru smiles. Typical, cry-baby Rin. 

“It’s okay. Let me go, I can’t breathe”

Rin sniffles and loosens his grip, but doesn’t let go.

“I’m an asshole, aren’t I?”

“No,” Haru says and pushes Rin away, just a little, so he can see his (teary) eyes (because, Haru won’t admit, but crying Rin is the most adorable thing ever). “You’re not.”

And then he pulls Rin’s face down to make their lips meet and Sayaka and Yoshino are forgotten.

 

 


End file.
